Attacks on the Press 2009: Croatia

Key Statistic
8: People indicted in a car bombing that killed two media executives.

Croatia’s efforts to join the European Union by 2011 did not yield major improvements in press freedom. While the EU said the government had made “substantial progress” on several issues—including the resolution of border disputes, the institution of refugee property rights, and improved cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia—some journalists feared the country was sliding back toward the lawless 1990s, when the ruling nationalist HDZ party suppressed independent news reporting. Police remained inconsistent in investigating attacks against journalists, several of whom faced threats after reporting on government corruption.

A major breakthrough in
one case offered some hope. Authorities in Croatia and Serbia brought
indictments against eight people in the brutal 2008 assassination of two media
executives. Ivo Pukanic, owner and editorial director of the Zagreb-based
political weekly Nacional, and Niko Franjic, the publication’s marketing
director, were killed when a bomb exploded under Pukanic’s car outside the
paper’s building. Acting in cooperation with Croatian authorities, police in
the Serbian capital, Belgrade, arrested reputed crime boss Sreten Jocic in
April on charges of organizing the bombing, according to press reports. In
October, prosecutors in Zagreb and Belgrade issued simultaneous indictments of
Jocic and seven others, and said the attack had been prompted by Nacional investigations into organized crime in the Balkans, news accounts
said.

Violence against
journalists continued, however, in 2009. In June, reporter Stjepan Mesaric of
the weekly Medjimurske Novine in the northern city of Cakovec was repeatedly
punched in the face, allegedly by the son of a local businessman, according to
local press reports. Mesaric had just written an article about corruption in
the local construction industry. Police did not charge the man who Mesaric said
had punched him, and the journalist told CPJ in a telephone interview that he
continued to receive threats from the alleged assailant. Police did not explain
the lack of action.

At least two other
journalists were under police protection in 2009 after their coverage of
government corruption had elicited threats. Hrvoje Appelt of the Zagreb weekly Globus began receiving anonymous death threats in late 2008 while
examining the personal business activities of then-Prime Minister Ivo Sanader,
according to local press reports. Dusan Miljus received a threatening letter in
March 2009 after publishing allegations that business leaders and government
officials were involved in illegal arms trafficking, according to local press
reports. Police reported no progress in solving a June 2008 attack against
Miljus that left him with a concussion, a broken arm, and facial bruises.

Croatia has been hit by a
wave of violence in recent years, reflecting Sanader’s reluctance to crack down
on widespread organized crime and government corruption, some of it linked to
his allies in the HDZ. The HDZ remained on the defensive for much of the year,
struggling with the effects of the global economic crisis and losing political
control of several major cities in May municipal elections. Sanader
unexpectedly resigned in July and handed the post to his HDZ protégé, Deputy
Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, as the party prepared for presidential elections
in early 2010. Kosor, whose attention was focused on the economy and the
country’s border dispute with Slovenia, took no significant press-related
actions.

Journalists complained
that media owners, fearing the loss of advertising during a recession,
restricted critical coverage of the government and influential companies. In
March, Appelt was dismissed by Globus after he delved into new government corruption
allegations, according to local press reports. In the spring, two prominent
journalists—Marinko Culic and Viktor Ivancic—were pushed out of the Rijeka
daily Novi List after the newspaper’s new HDZ-aligned
ownership ordered that their articles no longer be published, according to
local press reports.

Journalists also cited
growing politicization in the influential public broadcaster, Croatian Radio
and Television (HRT), which provided generally favorable coverage to the HDZ
while sidelining prominent journalists who had criticized the government. HRT
executives defended their editorial policies, insisting that they were
reporting on political issues of “high public interest,” the state news agency
HINA reported. The Croatian Journalists’ Association criticized HRT in July for
broadcasting a 50-minute speech by Sanader at an HDZ convention, saying it
showed political favoritism and violated the Law on Electronic Media, HINA
reported. Srecko Jurdan, a columnist for Nacional, termed the process the “HDZ-ization” of the
private and public media. In November, HRT executives suspended Ana Jelinic,
editor of the news program “Dossier,” claiming that its reporting on alleged
government corruption was too speculative, according to local and international
news reports.